Greatest Hits

Edward Hopper, Automat, 1927. Oil on canvas, 28 in × 36, Des Moines Art Center. This week a reader sent me a copy of "How to Feel Miserable As An Artist." This marvelous list was created by illustrator Keri Smith and is part of The Artist's Survival Kit, which [...]

Kim Uchiyama's studio is located on a quiet, tree-lined side-street in Lower Manhattan. On a crisp fall day in mid-November over tea and brunch, I visited Kim in her Tribeca apartment. We spent the day looking at art and discussing her new painting series, her artistic development and [...]

It’s been a while since I’ve shared a find from my ephemera collection. For my last "Found" post, I published two vintage images of two comic odd couples from my vernacular photography collection. I discovered this striking postcard of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s Valley Curtain far from its source in [...]

I have a special video version of the Sunday Poem for you today by Kevin Young, one of my favorite contemporary poets. In this short clip from the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival, Young reads his poem "Aunties," which appears in his collection Dear Darkness: Poems. Young is a talented reader [...]

Genius or Scam Artist? Artist and provocateur Banksy is a walking, breathing oxymoron. Depending on who you ask, he is either a genius or an overhyped vandal, a talented documentary filmmaker or a brilliant scam artist. As a self-described art terrorist, he is both a lefty and [...]

The Coffee Cup The newspaper, the coffee cup, the dog's impatience for his morning walk: These fibers braid the ordinary mystery. After the marriage of lovers the children came, and the schoolbus that stopped to pick up the children, and the expected death of the retired mailman Anthony [...]

With the continual stream of information and images flooding past me each day, I've come to appreciate the rare, found gems that stop me in my virtual tracks. This week it was the above photograph of wooden chairs piled between two buildings that caught my eye on a [...]

What makes an "honest" photograph---a "true" photograph? Is the medium of photography more factual and authentic than other art forms? What makes a photograph "a fake"? Can a photo be objective or does it always have a point of view? When does a photograph document reality? When is it [...]

An Artist Gets Audited A visual artist I know once told me about an audit she endured with the IRS. My friend is a professional artist in New York City with her own studio. Her work is shown at galleries and museums. She has received grants, been accepted [...]

It's the New Year, which means it's time for lofty resolutions and the annual onslaught of "best of" lists. Here at Gwarlingo, I thought I'd provide readers with a new twist on the traditional "Best of 2011" list. I asked an array of artists, composers, filmmakers, writers, musicians, and performers [...]

If you haven't seen Matthew Northridge's solo show Pictures by Wire and Wireless at KANSAS, the newest gallery on Tribeca’s up-and-coming gallery row, you're in luck. The show has just been extended until Saturday, January 7th. Art Forum magazine has placed Pictures by Wire and Wireless on their "Critic's Pick" list. I had [...]

If you're fed up with partisan bickering and political dysfunction in Washington, the gratifying, lavishly-illustrated book High Line: The Inside Story of New York City's Park in the Sky, just published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, might temper your burgeoning cynicism. The book is a lesson in what can [...]

Poem Without Intimacy the other day I was shopping in one of those giant incredibly brightly lit stores you can apparently see from space wheeling a massive empty cart thinking this is a lot like thinking why do I go to sleep not having brushed my [...]

Today is the birthday of writer Grace Paley. Although Paley's writing output was modest during her 84 years -- some four dozen stories in three volumes: The Little Disturbances of Man (Doubleday, 1959); Enormous Changes at the Last Minute (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1974); and Later the Same Day [...]

From The Desert About Jen Bervin Jen Bervin's work brings together text and textile in a practice that encompasses poetry, archival research, artist books, and large-scale art works. The Desert is a poem Bervin wrote by sewing row by row, line by [...]

"Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent." This line from Victor Hugo came to mind the first time I heard the incredible story of Tibetan nun Ngawang Sangdrol. At age 14 Sangdrol was jailed at the notorious Draphchi Prison [...]

Writer Nova Ren Suma has just published a new essay of mine over at "Distraction No. 99." Although the assigned topic was "inspiration," my piece covers a range of subjects, from library book censorship to the financial stresses of being an artist. But the central theme concerns the value [...]

Martin Scorsese's film adaptation of Brian Selznick's The Invention of Hugo Cabret is out in theaters today. Selznick's remarkable book won the 2008 Caldecott Medal (the first young adult novel to win the award for children's book illustration), was a finalist for the National Book Award, and was chosen as [...]

In recent years the London street art scene has been dominated by the brash, satirical, crowd-pleasing work of Banksy. His 2010 film Exit Through the Gift Shop, which I'll be writing about in the coming weeks, made Banksy a familiar name in certain American households, and his book, Wall [...]

Earlier this month composer Steve Reich turned 75. Over the past few decades Reich has gone from being a musical outsider to winning the Pulitzer Prize for his 2009 Double Sextet. In the early days of his career, Reich drove a cab in San Francisco and worked as a part-time social [...]

If you follow the subject of American religion, you have likely heard of author Jeff Sharlet. Sharlet has published five books on the subject, including C Street: The Fundamentalist Threat to American Democracy and The New York Times best seller The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of [...]

One of my favorite filmmakers working today is Bill Morrison. There aren't many directors whose work compels me to see every film they make, but Morrison is one of those rare artists I've enjoyed following closely through the years. His films are always memorable and worth seeking out. Over [...]

If you're in New York be sure to stop by Julie Saul Gallery to catch Bill Jacobson's new photography show. Into the Loving Nowhere (1989 till now) opens Thursday, October 20th with a special reception from 6-8 p.m. and will be on view through December [...]

I've had a few emails from readers asking for an update on the Occupy Writers project, which was unveiled on Friday. The list, which was the brainstorm of writers Jeff Sharlet and Kiera Feldman, began with almost 200 signatures, but has burgeoned to over 800. News of the project has [...]

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Gwarlingo, founded by Michelle Aldredge, features exciting finds in contemporary art, as well as advice about living the creative life. Gwarlingo highlights some of the most inventive art being made today and is a place where creative people can connect, explore, and share challenges, ideas, and resources. Whether you are here to read a new article, browse the Sunday Poem archives, get help with your art toolbox, or share your own work, we welcome you. Thanks for visiting. Come back. Come often.

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